Grad Students Receive ACSF Biodiversity Grants

These early-career scholars are carrying out cutting-edge research to preserve biodiversity in ecosystems around the world. At work in the field and labs across campus, they are tackling questions that include how migrating birds respond to a changing environment, how climate change fuels plant and animal epidemics, and how forest management incentive programs shape environmental and socioeconomic outcomes for local communities.

The Atkinson Center’s Sustainable Biodiversity Fund supports Cornell graduate students and postdocs with awards of up to $7,000. The grants encourage the next generation of sustainability researchers to cross traditional disciplinary boundaries as they take on some of the most pressing challenges in the conservation arena.

Cornell undergraduates will also have an opportunity to contribute to many of these novel research projects. The Towards Sustainability Foundation, which supports the SBF, expanded funding in 2015 to cover a new mentoring program that pairs graduate students with undergrads on cross-disciplinary biodiversity projects.